1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to musical instrument accessories, specifically to musical instrument accessories that condition, break-in, or artificially age stringed musical instruments for the purposes of improving the sound of such instruments.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
It is widely and commonly known that stringed musical instruments with wooden sounding boards, and often wooden bodies; such as instruments in the guitar, mandolin, and violin families; require extended periods of playing before they acquire their best sound. The process by which the sound improves with playing is known variously as breaking-in, aging, or conditioning. New or little-used instruments are characterized by tones that lack the sustain, depth, volume and clarity of well-used instruments. The sound improves as the instrument is played due to the sustained transmission of vibrations from the instrument's strings to the wooden sounding board of the instrument and the effects of these vibrations on the structure and mechanical characteristics of the wood and the instrument finish.
The problem posed by slow conditioning is that an instrument buyer cannot know how an instrument will sound in the long term if the instrument is purchased new and unplayed. This uncertainty makes it difficult to compare instruments critically, and the buyer must wait for an extended period of time until the instrument achieves its optimum sound. A performer may also need to defer playing a newly purchased instrument on stage until after the conditioning period is complete and the instrument's sound has stabilized. Likewise, an instrument manufacturer cannot fully evaluate the quality of their product, and a retailer cannot present new instruments to their best advantage.
The only method currently available for accelerating the conditioning process is to place the instrument near a loudspeaker and to allow the sounding board and body of the instrument to be vibrated by the sound pressure waves emanating from the loudspeaker. This process is being applied on a manufacturing scale by the Boucher Guitar Company (Rock Forest, Quebec, Canada) to treat unfinished guitar tops prior to final assembly and finishing. The guitar tops are exposed to music played within an acoustic chamber 24 hours a day (for an unspecified period) prior to construction of the guitar. These air-coupled vibrations, however, are weak, inefficient, and have unknown effectiveness.
There are no commercially-available devices that directly and efficiently apply vibrations to the sounding board or body of stringed instruments. Several patents have been issued, however, for devices claiming to accelerate instrument conditioning, again for the purpose of achieving optimum tone in relatively little time.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,911,872 to Carl 1959, U.S. Pat. No. 1,467,576 to Flydal 1923, and U.S. Pat. No. 579,605 to Pierce 1897, are similar in that all describe large, motor-driven, mechanical devices that automatically play one or more intact violins by drawing a bow or a belt across the strings in a reciprocating motion. The devices are intended to mimic the mechanics of actual playing and do apply vibrations to intact instruments via the normal sound-transduction mechanical chain from strings to bridge to sounding board, but are only appropriate for instrument manufacturers. The large, expensive, stationary devices are not accessible to the instrument consumer or retailer.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,352,442 to Floresco 1920, also addresses violin conditioning, but the invention treats only the top of the instrument removed from the body. The Floresco invention uses exaggerated static stresses applied to the instrument bridge by heavy-duty metal strings stretched across a frame external to the treated portion of the instrument. The invention exposes the violin top to stresses never encountered during normal use and is only suitable for use by violin manufacturers, and also.
The inventions described in patents U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,908 to Rabe 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,081 to Simjian 1995 are intended to improve the tone of wooden instruments, but again by subject the instrument to an industrial treatment suitable only for manufacturing environments. The Rabe invention attaches the instrument or parts of an instrument to a vibrating surface or table and subjects the attached components to a range of vibration frequencies. Since the whole instrument or instrument parts are shaken, the applied vibrations bypass the normal mechanical chain from the strings to the bridge to the soundboard. Consequently, the treatment risks damage to components not intended to sustain vibrations and may or may not treat all the components that are intended to vibrate in normal use. The Simjian invention suffers the same shortcomings and risks since it submerges wood panels destined for use as instrument parts in an ultrasonic bath.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,501 to Ashworth, 1991 Jul. 16, is the most relevant to the present application and describes the only device that is portable, that attaches to a complete instrument, and that could be used by an instrument consumer. The Ashworth invention comprises an audio transducer attached to a guitar in which the tension of the strings presses down on an arm of the device which, in turn, presses a foot extending from the transducer directly against the sounding board. The strings are used only to hold the invention in place while the audio transducer applies vibrations directly to the sounding board via a rigid mechanical coupling.
Although the multiple patents described above emphasize the importance of and attempt to address the need for conditioning new or little-used string instruments with wood sounding boards or bodies, all of the inventions suffer from one or more disadvantages.    (a) Most of the inventions constitute industrial or manufacturing treatments that are not suitable for use by the instrument consumer. In particular, the inventions            are large, bulky, and stationary        are expensive        are not easily applied        are not designed to be attached and removed easily or frequently        are not suitable for unattended use        do not apply vibrations through the normal mechanical chain or do not apply vibrations or stresses normally encountered during play            (b) Most of the inventions are designed for instruments in the violin family only and are not applicable to instruments that are plucked rather than bowed, such as those in the guitar and mandolin families.    (c) The only invention that is suitable for use by the instrument consumer            is relatively difficult to remove and attach        has multiple moving parts necessary for attachment and adjustment        makes mechanical contact with the sounding board and thus exposes the sounding board to physical damage        makes mechanical contact with the sounding board and thus bypasses the normal sound transduction mechanical chain from strings to bridge to sounding board        makes mechanical contact with the sounding board and thus may not vibrate all components of the instrument that normally experience vibration, or may vibrate components of the instrument that do not normally experience vibration        tends by its design to lift strings off of the instrument bridge, which may lead to movement of the bridge for instruments with bridges not fixed to the body such as violins, mandolins, and arch-top guitars        requires an unspecified source of amplified audio signals to drive the audio transducer        
The disadvantages and deficiencies of these previous inventions may be responsible for the complete absence of any commercially-available stringed instrument conditioner.